The Fortune piece is incredible reading, easily the best of the Blackstone/Cosmo post mortem. Their analysis is cogent, conjectures are compelling and arguments make sense.

Asserting that Unwin, McCartney et. al. are inefficient managers who could be easily replaced from ranks of local executives was a reminder that the local Vegas media is basically an ass kissing machine. You'd never hear any degree of criticism of any operator, ever in the local media.

The theory that Blackstone would expand Cosmopolitan's brand inside the Hilton family (as opposed to rebranding Cosmopolitan a Hilton, Waldorf or Conrad) was a revelation. They've got a lot of options and the Hilton rolodex to draw upon too.

motoman posted on Friday, 16th May 2014 - 10:04 pm

Expanding the Cosmo(politan) brand is certainly an interesting idea, given MGM/Hakkasan's similar, if unrealized, idea.

Detroit, I believe some Wynn and maybe Caesars people went to Cosmo at the very beginning. Line folks at least, if not execs....

MGM or Caesar's hired to operate it with their large player databases makes the most sense to me cause that's all Cosmo needs, more gamblers.

motoman posted on Saturday, 17th May 2014 - 8:42 pm

@motoman (commenting on own comment here),
Well, duh. Must've forgotten all the yrs of TWHT and Vegas Gang Podcast. Of course, Unwin himself came directly from Caesars. (But I thought they had poached some other exec talent as well....)